The 'Inevitable' Mitt Romney's Is About To Be 1 For 3 In The Primaries

Mitt Romney's spokespeople have been telling the media that
Romney did not expect to do well in South Carolina. But their
strategy of lowering expectations is not working.

The Romney campaign has spent more money and built a more robust
organization in South Carolina than anyone else. They have two
campaign offices in the state and has been flooding inboxes with
mailers and issuing personalized robo-calls across the state.
"Hello, Smith Family, I'm Mitt Romney."

Romney also had two absolutely terrible debate performances. And
he was leading in polls when the week began. So there is not
going to be any "moral victory" in second place. South Carolina
will be something that Romney lost.

Perhaps this is just the worst week of Mitt Romney's inevitable
nomination. He lost a caucus he thought he had won in Iowa.
Rick
Perry dropped out and endorsed his chief rival. The
dismal weather is depressing his turnout of
voters. And two great Gingrich debate performances
created a bandwagon effect, that allowed anti-Mitt voters to get
excited about participating in what seemed like an unlikely upset
victory.

But suddenly, the idea that Mitt Romney could lose this
nomination seems possible. The likelihood of his nomination on
Intrade has been in free fall from 90 percent mid-week down to
percentages in the low 70s.

Intrade

It's obvious that the media has had the effect of
intensifying trends. Media interest in Santorum going into Iowa
helped him get a 20 point bounce. Media interest in Huntsman's
surge, lifted him from 7 percent to 17 percent in New Hampshire
in just three days. Gingrich is getting that bandwagon surge
now.

But how much blame does Romney get for losing? What kind of
bounce does Gingrich get into Florida? Can Romney find a way to
reverse what look like ugly trends for him? That's what we'll be
mulling tonight as the results come in.